2012 Opening Day Macots Set

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots Set

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-2 The Bird Baltimore Orioles

I originally started drafting this post ages ago. Like a ton of other posts on this blog. Yeah I have more than a few dusty posts in my drafting queue here and on my other two blogs. A very long while back (around 2013 something) from Ebay I got the 2012 Topps Baseball Opening Day Mascots insert set (numbered M1-M25). Got it for $22.99 + $3.50 shipping. Not a steal or a deal but I have seen them for way more.

The Opening Day set is almost identical to the flagship set with the exception of the "Opening Day" logo with the red, white, and blue bunting on the front. For players they usually use the same photo from the flagship set, but not always. The Mascots are not part of the regular flagship set they are the only picture in most cases of the mascot for that year. Some of them make cameo appearances on player cards or their team cards. I recall some years they have had variant picture cards for some of the players interacting with the mascots for special short prints. The backs of the cards are like the flagship backs not much different. The card numbers for the mascot cards for 2012 use the "M - #" format. There are 25 cards in the set. I used to mistakenly call it a "sub-set", but the numbering indicates it is a separate insert set.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-2 The Bird Baltimore Orioles Back

Most of the 30 MLB teams have mascots, the Angels, Dodgers and Yankees are the only teams without an official, or unofficial mascot. Years ago the Yankees had a mascot from 1979-1981 named Dandy he was a strange looking beast. I couldn't decide which picture to post from my searching so I didn't. You'll have to Google, or Bing or Yahoo search to see what the fella looked like. I'm not sure if I'll get around to featuring him at all since I don't think he is officially on a card, even though the blog? Baseball Think Factory dot org has a mock-up 2011 Topps Opening Day card showing him. The Cubs used to be mascotless but in 2014 they announced Clark the Cub as their official mascot, their first official mascot in ages. In 2012 for this set Clark was not yet discovered. The only other team mascot NOT in this set is Lou Seal of the Giants, for some reason he was left out of this set, yet he is in others. In some cases a team has more than one mascot, but only the official mascot or the most popular one is shown in this set. I hate when they leave some of these guys out.

An odd thing about this set is the card for Homer The Brave of the Atlanta Braves is the only card that is landscape (horizontal) oriented. The rest are the standard portrait (normal vertical) orientation.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-8 Homer Atlanta Braves

Front and Back

M-1 Bernie Brewer Brewers
M-2 The Oriole Bird Baltimore Orioles
M-3 Ace The Blue Jays
M-4 Baxter The Bob Cat Diamondbacks
M-5 Fredbird Cardinals
M-6 Raymond Rays
M-7 Mr. Met Mets
M-8 Homer The Brave Braves
M-9 Rangers Captain Rangers

M-10 Pirate Parrot Pirates
M-11 Billy The Marlin Marlins
M-12 Paws Tigers
M-13 Dinger Rockies
M-14 Phillie Phanatic Phillies
M-15 Slugger Royals
M-16 Wally The Green Monster Red Sox
M-17 Gapper Reds
M-18 Slider Indians

M-19 TC Bear Twins
M-20 Swinging Friar Padres
M-21 Southpaw White Sox
M-22 Screech Nationals
M-23 Mariner Moose Mariners
M-24 Stomper Athletics
M-25 Junction Jack Astros

Today (Monday 03 April, 2017) is Home Opening Day for my Homies the Washington Nationals they kick things off at home with the Marlins. Screech will be there cheering on the Nats.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-22 Screech Washington Nationals
Front and Back

Look for my weekly occasional feature on this blog "Mascot Monday".